The competition draws blues bands from all over the western United States and is usually the best time to catch hot West Coast blues bands doing their thing with the winner travelling to Memphis, Tennessee to play one night with other top blues acts from around the country. It’s kind of a grind, 9 bands in a night. Everyone uses the same back line (drums, amps, etc) and each act gets only 10 minutes to set up.

We went on in the early part of the first night and did a yeoman’s job in my humble opinion (I had to deal with a monster 8 piece drum kit, a big deal considering I play a 4 piece kit). We did a 5 song set showcasing some of our more rocking stuff. This clip is our last song from the set, a medley of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Pride and Joy” (done DBJ style) and “Love Rocket” from our second record “Sweet Sassy”.

Thanks to Chrissy Van Osdol for capturing it on vid for us.

Propped it up behind me (though the angle turned out to be a little odd) and came up with this performance for “Hoochie Koochie Man”.

Sound quality is suspect but it was a fun experiment.

I’m pleased to share our first video from this session for “My Dog Spike” from our first record “Buttered on the Right Side”.

This video can also be seen on our Reverb Nation page. Credit is also due to JT for putting this clip together with the footage from the shoot, and also to our 4th member Dave Boyle from Studio 212 here in Portland for the live sound and mixing.

We filmed about 6-7 hours of live footage and recorded as well at Quiet Life Productions sound stage in Vancouver, Washington. We’re going to be assembling the footage into a series of promo clips and a DVD.

This is a clip captured from the “drum cam” of us playing “Dimples” by John Lee Hooker.

It’s fun and gives a sample of what it looks like hanging back with the drummer.
There will be more to come for sure.

My past is filled with incredible memories, records, sessions, videos, pictures and other assorted memorabilia. I’ve definitely accomplished a lot musically in my past. But today, with the projects I am involved in, I feel a sense of greater accomplishment and pride. I think this stems primarily from the fact that every project I am a part of has balance and equity in how they operate.

None of my current projects are dictated by record companies, the desire to be a part of a record company, or fulfilling someone’s expectations of what we are doing. We do what we do, when we want to do it, and how we want to do it. This past weekend, Dull Boy Jack, my funk/blues/country-fried trio set up at our buddy Keith’s Quiet Life Productions facility with the intent to record ourselves in live performance, and, film it as well.

There was minimal concept other than this and the end result was incredibly satisfying. We had played the previous evening up on Mt Hood with our classic rock cover band and had rolled in sometime around 3 AM. We were all tired but really enthused to play our music and see what we could do. We ended the day after 6 hours of playing and filming with a shit ton of great HD video, lots of cool pictures (thanks again Paul Matera) and good energy towards putting this all together. Our good friend Dave Boyle came with his rig and recorded us and gave up his day for our project.

In the end, this was one of the most satisfying projects I have ever been a part of.

I think the look on my face says it all.
Anyway, thanks to my boys Rich and JT.
We’re enjoying ourselves that much is true.

Me be clearly happy.

Me laying it down.

If you didn’t make it, here’s a sample of what you missed at our CD release party at the Twilight Cafe March 26th.

We had a blast and I think this video proves it.

Here’s “Love Rocket” with a rather, ahem, improvised and extended intro by JT a.k.a Cool Mo JT.

P.S. – Trip out on Rich’s t-shirt:

We had a good time and enjoyed hanging after the show with everyone.

We’ll be posting new show information soon and remind you to keep your eyes on our home at Reverb Nation: www.reverbnation.com/dullboyjack.

My trio, Dull Boy Jack will have our CD release party for “Sweet Sassy” at the Twilight Cafe tonight in Portland, March 26th (Thursday).

More information can be found at our home on Reverb Nation: www.reverbnation.com/dullboyjack.

Hope to see you there!

Dull Boy Jack 2008

It’s available now through CD Baby and through iTunes.

Link for CD Baby.
Link for iTunes.

Note: Clicking on the iTunes link will open your local version of iTunes and take you away from your browser.

I’ll be posting more information about this and more Dull Boy Jack news in the next few days.